


Landslide

by blakefancier



Series: Young Lovers [3]
Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-05
Updated: 2011-10-05
Packaged: 2017-10-24 08:06:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/261013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakefancier/pseuds/blakefancier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony finds out that Howard and Steve are having sex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Landslide

"So when you said you'd pick me up from school, I sort of thought you'd send a car," Tony said, taking off his headphones and looking at Howard curiously.

Howard shrugged and stared hard at the road in front of him: he hated driving in the snow. "I thought we could talk."

"Well, yeah, but, we could have done that with a driver. Or you could have waited until I got home." Tony picked at a hole in his jeans. "Is there something going on, Dad?"

"There is, actually. Not that I don't want to spend time with you, but there's something I wanted to talk to you about and I thought this might be a good time."

"Is Mom moving to Europe again?" There was weary note to Tony's voice that made Howard glance at him.

"As far as I know, your mom will be home from Switzerland after the New Year. I'm surprised you're not with her, actually." Tony almost always spent Christmas break with his mother.

"Yeah, well, Steve and I made plans to marathon the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in the theaters this year. He can really sulk if someone breaks their promises."

And didn't Howard know it. "I'm sure you two will have fun."

"Mmm. So what did you want to tell me?" Tony twisted in his seat and began to bounce his knee.

"I…" Howard took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm seeing someone."

"Oh," Tony said in a flat voice.

"Come on, Tony, it's not like that. We've been… dating for a few months and it's serious."

"Right. Sure, Dad. A couple of months and it's serious." Tony snorted and turned to look out the window.

Howard swallowed hard. "It's someone you know."

"Obadiah?" Tony brightened at that thought and Howard couldn't understand why Tony seemed to like Obi so much.

"Obi's married."

"Uh huh." And of course Tony was skeptical because that had never stopped Howard before.

"It's not Obadiah." He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. "It's… Steve."

"Steve?" Howard glanced at Tony and he was frowning. "Was he the redhead?"

"No, he's a blond. Steve Rogers, Tony. I'm dating Steve Rogers." His stomach clenched and he fought the urge to speed up.

"I… I'm sorry, what?" Tony shook his head "I think I misunderstood you."

"You didn't. Steve and I… We're…" Boyfriends? Lovers? "We're together." And didn’t that sound inadequate.

"Steve? My best friend Steve? Steve who's sixteen and my best friend!"

"Tony, I know."

"You're fucking my best friend! Are you telling me that you're fucking my best friend in the whole world? My best friend, who is my age? Who is sixteen! You—"

"Don’t say fucking again, Tony!"

"I'm sorry, is that upsetting you? Is it pissing you off? I’m sorry Dad, I'm a little upset myself since I just found out you're dicking my best friend!" Tony yelled and threw his hands in the air. "I should have guessed, I should have known! I mean, of course there was a reason you were being nice to me! You're screwing Steve! My dad, the pedophile."

"I am *not* a pedophile."

"Really? Steve's still underage, isn't he? And if I know you, Dad, you had him pinned to the mattress on your first date." Tony made air quotes.

"Tony, will you please calm the fuck down! And stop talking about Steve like he's some little airhead I picked up for the night. I… I love Steve."

"You love Steve?" Tony laughed angrily.

"That's right, I love Steve."

"Stop the damn car," Tony said, through clenched teeth.

"Stop— We're on the Interstate, I'm not going to—"

"Pull over or I swear I'll open the door and jump out!"

Howard swore and pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. "All right, fine. Now—What the hell are you doing?"

Tony unbuckled his seatbelt and stormed out of the car.

"Goddammit, Tony, get back the fucking car!" Howard cursed a bit more, then followed him. With his luck they'd *both* get sideswiped. "Get back here!"

"Fuck you!"

"Tony, you're going to get hurt. Now will you please, stop!" Dammit, he wasn't wearing the right shoes for this.

Suddenly, Tony did stop, and he turned around; Howard blinked in surprise because he was… he was crying.

"Tony." He closed the distance between them and grabbed the boy by his arm. He couldn't remember the last time Tony cried.

"How could you? He's my best friend! You—You're going to mess up everything! You're going to hurt him and he'll never want to see me again!" Tony shoved him. "I hate you! I hate you so much!"

"Tony, no. No, come on. There's a rest stop up ahead. Get in the car and we'll talk there. Please, Tony. Please."

Tony furiously wiped at his eyes and glared at him. "Fine!" Then he stalked back to the car, with Howard sliding and slipping after him.

Neither of them said anything until they got to the rest stop. Howard left the car running so they wouldn't freeze their asses off and because the sound of the motor was soothing.

"I know you're upset and you have every right to be, but I really do love Steve, Tony, and I would never do anything to hurt him." He reached out to touch Tony, but the boy shrank away from him.

"That's just it, Dad," Tony said, his voice still thick with tears. "You never mean to hurt people. But you do. I mean, come on, when was the last time one of your relationships worked out for the long term? Hell, Dad, when was the last time one of your relationships worked out for the short term?"

"Your mom and I—"

"You cheated on Mom. You cheated on her so many times even the tabloids lost count." Tony brought his knees up to his chest and stared at him. "And you cheated on every boyfriend and lover you had after, too."

"I know that I haven’t had the best track record, but—"

"That's why I don't ever see her, you know." Tony wiped his nose on his sleeve and sniffled.

"What?" He was quickly losing control of this conversation. Oh, what the hell was he thinking, he never had control to begin with.

"Mom. She says I look like you, that I'm just like you. That's why I never see her. She can't stand to look at me because she sees you." Tony's face crumpled and he was crying again.

"No! Tony, no." God, what had he done to this kid? That Tony would think… He pulled Tony into a hug. "Your mom loves you and I love you. The only reason why she gave me primary custody of you is because you're brilliant and she knew I could help you. She knew that I understood what that felt like. Tony, your mom loves you so much. She'd do anything for you. I'd do anything for you, too."

"Then break up with Steve."

"What?" Howard pulled away.

"If you stay with him, you'll cheat. I know it, and you know it. You'll break his heart and I'll lose my best friend. He's the only real friend I have and I'm not going to lose him, Dad. I'm not. So if you love me, if you really, really love me, you'll break up with him."

"Tony. Tony, I… I…" Howard didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to think.

Tony made a disgusted noise. "That's what I thought."

"I…" He took a deep breath. "Look, let's talk about this a bit more."

Tony shook his head and looked out the window. "I knew you were lying. The only person you care about is yourself."

Howard leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He felt his own eyes prickle and he wanted to scream at Tony that he was being selfish, that he wasn’t being fair. But Tony was a kid and kids were allowed to be selfish, allowed to be unfair. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"All right," he said, his voice hoarse and trembling. "I'll break it off with him. I'll… I'll find some way of letting him down easy. You can swoop in and commiserate with each other."

"Really?" Tony's voice was high and hopeful.

"Sure. Like you said, I would have screwed it up anyway."

*****

Tony was still pissed at him, so when they made it home, the kid immediately got out of the car and stormed away. Howard felt bruised and battered and so tired he wanted to cry. But his day wasn't over yet.

He took out his cell and called Steve.

"Howard," Steve answered cheerfully. "How did it go?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Not good, babe. Can you come over?"

"Sure." There was a slight pause. "I know Tony's mad, but he loves us. He'll want us to be happy."

"Yeah." God, Steve was so naïve. "I can send a car to pick you up."

"In this weather, it'll be quicker if I take the subway. I'll see you soon. Love you."

"I love you, too."

*****

Howard must have looked pretty horrible because when Steve walked into the workshop, he dropped his backpack and rushed over for a hug.

"I didn't realize it was that bad," Steve said, kissing his temple.

Howard let himself enjoy the sensation of Steve in his arms: his warmth, his smell, the feel of his body. Being good parent was horrible if he had to give up this. After a moment, he gently pushed Steve away.

"You know that I love you."

Steve gave a puzzled frown. "Um, yes. And you know that I love you."

"I want to be a good parent. I… I want to be the sort of parent that… that you think I could be." It was getting harder and harder to breathe. His chest felt tight from all the emotion and for a moment he thought he was going to be sick. "I love you, Steve, but I need to… Tony needs to come first and—"

Steve laid hand over Howard's mouth. "That little jerk."

He pushed Steve's hand away. "You have to let me go through with this. I have to say this. Steve, I'm sorry, but—"

"No," Steve said in a very firm voice.

He laughed, almost hysterically. "I don't think you get to say that."

"We're not breaking up, Howard. It'd be different if you didn't love me or want me. But we are not breaking up because Tony is a spoiled brat." Steve narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenched. "I'll take care of this."

"Steve?" That look was a little frightening and Howard took a step back.

"Is Tony in is room?" When Howard nodded, Steve took a deep breath. "Good. Stay out of the way and don't interfere."

With that, Steve scooped up his backpack and headed upstairs.

*****

Howard was not ashamed to say that he didn't follow Steve. Instead, he sat at his workbench, fiddling with a prototype of a neural disrupter. It was a nasty little weapon, and the military probably would reject it. But, then again, you never knew what might catch their eye.

After about an hour, he realized he was being ridiculous. He wasn't going to hole himself up in his workshop. It wasn’t until he opened the door to the first floor that he realized there might be good reason for him to stay downstairs.

He'd never heard Steve scream like that. Raise his voice, yes. Steve always raised his voice when he was passionate about something, but this, this was harsh and angry and not the least bit forgiving.

"Open the darn door, Tony! I'm not leaving until we talk this out."

"Go to hell," Tony screamed right back. "I don’t have to do anything. You might be fucking my dad, but that doesn’t give you power over me. You… You're just a star-fucker!"

"You're dad's not a star, you jerk!"

Howard headed up the stairs to the second floor. And when he got to the east wing, he saw Steve at Tony's bedroom door, pounding on it.

"Don't think I won't kick this door down!"

"Try! I hope you break your fucking leg."

Steve kicked at the door once, hard, then leaned his head against the frame. He said in a quiet voice, "Come on, Tony, open the door. Please, open the door."

"No!" Tony's voice broke, and even from his position, Howard could hear his harsh sobs. "How could you, Steve? After all I told you, how could you?"

"I told you, I love him." Steve closed his eyes. "I love him. Please open the door. I… I've got your favorite, Tony: banana Laffy Taffy and grape Pop Rocks."

"Just leave me alone! I don't ever want to talk to you again!"

"I’m not leaving." Steve jiggled the doorknob.

"You have to leave some time."

"I can do this all day." He kicked the door again, then settled on the floor. "I’m not going anywhere, even if I have to camp here all winter break."

Howard took a step forward; Steve looked at him and motioned for him to go away. He sighed and nodded. He didn't go downstairs. He sat on the top step of the staircase, where he could hear every word. A few minutes later, Tony started yelling again, and Steve responded in kind.

It went on for hours, until both boys' voices were ragged and it hurt to listen to them. Every once in awhile, Jarvis would pass him on the stairs with a bottle of water for Steve.

Eventually, Howard stretched out on the landing, staring up at the ceiling, listening to the rise and fall of their voices, his chest aching with the pain of their fight, knowing it was just an echo of what they must be feeling.

*****

Howard heard his name being called softly and someone gently nudged his shoulder. He woke with a gasp, his eyes opening. He blinked, bleary-eyed at Jarvis.

"T-Time?" he asked, his tongue tripping over the word.

"Eight-thirty, sir." Jarvis stared down at him, an eyebrow raised.

He sat up with a groan, his back twinging. "It's quiet."

"Yes, Mr. Stark. Steven managed to talk his way into Master Tony's room about one this morning."

"Oh." Howard ran his fingers through his hair. "That's good. I think."

"Yes, sir. Breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes. Perhaps…" Jarvis looked pointedly at him.

"I'll wake them."

"Very good, sir." Jarvis made his way down the stairs to the kitchen.

Howard sighed, grabbed the handrail, and pulled himself up. He stumbled down the corridor, rubbing his eyes and trying to straighten his clothes. Ugh, he was a mess. He only hoped that the boys were all right.

Thankfully. Tony's door was unlocked; he slowly opened it and slipped into the room. What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. They were in bed together, full clothed, candy wrappers strewn around them, Tony curled against Steve's chest like a puppy.

They looked completely comfortable with each other, they looked… they looked young and absolutely beautiful, like two young lovers. A sharp, painful spike of jealousy ran through him, leaving him momentarily breathless. He closed his eyes against the emotion and told himself to stop being an idiot. Steve loved him and Tony was very much a ladies' man.

He opened his eyes and gently shook Steve's shoulder. "Rise and shine," he said softly.

Steve's eyes fluttered open and when they focused on Howard, he was treated to the sweetest, happiest smile he'd ever seen. "Hi."

Howard smiled and brushed the hair from Steve's forehead. "Good morning. It's time for you boys to wake up. Jarvis says breakfast will be ready in twenty minutes."

"Okay." Steve looked down at Tony, who was drooling slightly, and grinned. Then he reached down, pinched Tony's nose, and covered his mouth. A few seconds later, Tony flailed awake in a panic and Steve pulled his hand away.

"What the hell!" Tony croaked, rubbing his eyes, and glaring.

Steve laughed, nudged him in the ribs, and with a raised eyebrow, glanced at Howard.

Tony let out a big sigh and rolled his eyes, Then he turned to look at Howard. "Your boyfriend's a jackass."

The tension he'd been carrying around since their argument yesterday, eased, and he smiled. "Oh, I don't know. I think he's all right."

Steve beamed at both of them, then bounded out of bed. He gave Howard a pointed look, then headed for the door. "I'm taking a shower. See you guys downstairs."

They both watched him go. Tony gave it another few seconds, then looked over at him. "If you hurt him, I swear that I will never speak to you again. Not one word, Dad."

"I won't. Tony, I promise you, I won't."

Tony snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Are we all right?" He reached out to touch Tony, but at the last minute, changed his mind.

"As right as we ever are," he replied, which was rather disappointing. Suddenly, Tony blushed. "Um, I think Steve wanted you to follow him."

"Oh?" Howard blinked, then blushed himself. "Oh! Right, well, I… I'll see you at breakfast."

"Yeah." And as he was leaving, he thought he heard Tony mutter, "It's like the blind leading the visually challenged."

*****

Steve was using the in suite shower attached to his bedroom. Howard quickly stripped off and joined him.

"Took you long enough." Steve wrapped his arms around Howard's neck and kissed him soundly.

"Sorry about that," he said, kissing back. "Tony had one more comment for me."

Steve smiled. "If you hurt Steve, I'll kill you?"

"Something like that." Howard gently ran his hands down Steve's back to his ass.

"Yeah, he said same thing to me." Steve nibbled his earlobe.

"If I hurt you, he'd kill me?" His cock stood at attention as Steve wiggled against him.

"No." Steve nipped his ear. "He said that if I hurt you, he'd gut me like a fish."

"Really?" Howard couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Yeah." Steve leaned back and gave him an exasperated look. "Of course, he did. You're his dad, Howard, and he loves you. He doesn't want you to get hurt."

"Oh." He felt inordinately pleased about that. "Okay. Turn around, I'll scrub your back."

"I didn’t ask you to join me to get my back scrubbed, Howard."

"You didn't?" He widened his eyes in mock-surprise. "Why did you, then?"

Steve flushed and bit his bottom lip. "Blowjobs."

"Giving or getting?"

He gave Howard a look that said the answer was obvious. "Both."

*****

"So, I have to ask," Howard said, following Steve out of the bathroom.

"About what?" Steve pulled on his jeans and Howard made a soft noise. "What?"

"Commando? Really?" If they hadn't just sucked each other off, Howard would have jumped him.

"I'm not gonna put on dirty underwear." Steve buttoned up his fly. "What did you want to ask?"

"You and Tony… Did you, um… ever experiment?" He rummaged through his drawer for clean underwear of his own.

"Sure! You must have heard about it. Jarvis said he was gonna tell you about the bottle rocket incident. "

"The bottle…" Howard spun around and Steve was giving him a very innocent look. "You know I didn't mean science experiments."

"Yeah." Steve tilted his head. "But do you really want to know if me and Tony fooled around, Howard? Really?"

He opened his mouth to say yes, then stopped. Did he? Did he really want to know if his lover and his son experimented sexually with one other? "No. You're right, I don't."

"I hope Mr. Jarvis made pancakes, I'm starving. Race you down!"

Before Howard could tell Steve he wasn't even dressed yet, the boy had bolted out of the room.

*****

Steve was on his second serving of pancakes—and it was horrifyingly mesmerizing how much he could eat—when Tony skidded into the room, holding up several of sheaves of paper.

"I made handouts!"

Steve made a disgusted noise.

"Hey, you lost on Mario Kart fair and square, buddy! Deal with it." Tony passed out the handouts to everyone, even Jarvis. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay, if everyone will flip to page two, you'll see the schedule I made."

Howard flips the page and ther it is, in all its brightly colored glory. "What the hell is this?"

"It's how we're going to handle the management of Steve's time while I'm home. Mrs. Rogers' time is in yellow, mine in blue, and Dad, you get pretty, pretty princess pink." Tony smirked.

"Are you on drugs?"

"Nope, this is just my natural charisma! Now, if everyone will flip to pages three and four, you'll see the posted rules. I added a few in there for you, Jarvis. You've probably been walking in on them all over the place. So—"

"Wait! What the hell is this? I'm not—" He closed his mouth with a snap when Steve touched his hand and shook his head.

"Tony and I made a bet last night, if I lost to him at Mario Kart, he'd get to do this." Steve tapped the handout.

"Exactly! Now, as I was saying—"  
"And what if I don't agree to this?" It was ridiculous. It was… damn it, he hated when Steve pulled the damn puppy dog eyes. He sighed, clenched his teeth, and reminded himself that this was temporary and that it made Tony feel better. That's probably why Steve was going along with it. "Fine!"

"Good, now, rule number one: no excessive PDA when I'm around. That means kisses can't be longer than five seconds, no touching below the belt, and no silly nicknames. Especially ones that are food related."

"But I can still call you them, right, sticky buns?" Steve batted his eyelashes at Tony.

"You better believe it, crumble cake." Tony leered; it was pretty damn disturbing and Howard wished there was whiskey in his coffee. "Now, rule number two: extra-curricular activities should be kept to the bedroom. I don't want to stumble on you two on the couch or the stairs or anywhere I eat food. The kitchen and dining room are sanitary places. Seriously, don’t make Jarvis break out the bleach."

"Get on with it, Tony." This was humiliating enough without Tony's extemporizing. Howard glanced at Steve who was grinning; of course he was.

"Rule number three: I am not your beard, your go between, or whatever you want to call it. If you use me in such a fashion, I demand gifts of… of…"

"Banana Laffy Taffy and grape Pop Rocks?" Steve offered.

"And Coke. Lots and lots of Coke." Tony flopped into a chair with an exaggerated sigh. "There will be more rules as I think of them."

"Are you done?" Howard asked.

Tony quirked his mouth thoughtfully. "Yes."

"Good. You should eat some breakfast."

"Naw, I'm good. I'll just have a large tub of popcorn at the movie theater. We're still doing Lord of the Rings today, right, Steve?"

Steve wiped his mouth and drained his glass of milk. "Yeah. You wanna come with us, Howard?"

"And spend six hours in a movie theater? No thank you." He picked up his newspaper and opened it. "You boys have fun."

Steve stood up, walked over to Howard, and tapped his shoulder. When he looked up, Steve leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss.

"That's five seconds!" Tony called out.

"Four and a half," Steve countered.

They kept it up all the way out of the dining room. Howard sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.


End file.
